When I was four, I asked my father if I’d get to live like my sister, with her makeup and her clothes, when I grew up. He told me that I needed to go outside and do “boy stuff.” He banned me from watching my favorite movie, The Little Mermaid, and filled my room with military toys: model fighter jets, G.I. Joes with plastic tanks and rifles. Even my coverlet was military themed, decorated with drawings of F-14s and F-16s.
